A time for remembrance

By Paulette Tobin 5/22/00

Soon it will be Memorial Day, the day set aside to honor our nation's veterans, and to remember the loved ones who have gone before us. One of those I'll be remembering is my father, Emanuel Haupt, who died Jan. 9, 1997. We lose so much when we lose a parent -- not just their love and companionship, which is, of course, a huge loss -- but all they knew about us, all their knowledge of the family, even part of our connection to Eureka. Knowing this, I am all the more mindful of how easily important parts of our history can be forgotten.

Currently there's an ambitious project under way in the Eureka area that could go a long way toward preserving part of our history. The project's goal is to locate all the cemeteries in McPherson County, to photograph them and to record other information about them. One of the people behind this impressive endeavor is former Eurekan Duane Stabler, EHS Class of 1968, who now lives in Minneapolis and who maintains the McPherson County Web site (sites.rootsweb.com/~sdmcpher/). He's active in the Bloomington chapter of a Germans from Russia historical society as well as being a major computer buff.

Duane is the one who is compiling the information and photos. Back in McPherson County, Selma Lapp of Eureka and Keenan Stoecker of Leola are doing the legwork for this project.

Duane told me his original plan was to gather information and photos about the cemeteries and to put it on the McPherson County Web site. He had discussed his idea with Margaret Freeman (whose mother was an Aman, born in Eureka) during the Germans from Russia Heritage Society convention in Aberdeen last summer. Freeman said the Gluckstal Colonies Research Association would kick in a few dollars to help defray expenses, and she would try to find some volunteers to help.

As a result, Duane met Selma and Lenora Schick (who has since had to drop out of the project because of her health), and Selma found Keenan Stoecker to work on the cemeteries in the east end of the county near Leola. Since then, said Duane, Selma has been sending him handwritten information and photos. Duane has been scanning the photos on his computer and compiling the information, which has expanded to include the names of people buried in some of the cemeteries.

Selma started out with some church records and since has expanded her research to weekly trips to the courthouse in Leola, where she has been going through burial books and death records. At last count, Duane said, he had records of 34 cemeteries and burial plots. He's also planning to make a map of the county showing the locations of all the cemeteries.

Selma, who many of you will remember as our school nurse in the 1970s, started last fall making a list of cemeteries and family plots in the Eureka and Long Lake areas. Duane sent her his list of Eureka-area cemeteries, but she knew the list was incomplete. She began asking people if they knew of any cemeteries on their land and so far has expanded the list to include about 50 burial sites. But she says she hasn't really gotten started in the Long Lake area yet.

Selma said she has always been interested in history and fascinated by cemeteries, the lives of the people buried there and the circumstances of their deaths. Just recently during a walk through the Eureka Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery she passed an old stone and read an inscription she had never noticed before. "Here lie seven children of Mr. and Mrs. Wilhelm Schneurle." When you find a record like that, it's natural to wonder about the circumstances of those deaths, and about the parents of those children.

Selma said death records at the courthouse go back only as far as 1905, and the county burial books - a record of burial permits - to 1941. But Selma's research has been much more than plowing through old records. One day last fall, for instance, she and Milbert Kusler spent an afternoon visiting country cemeteries in Spring Creek and Detmold townships. Milbert grew up and farmed in that area 8 miles north of Eureka before he retired. There were two Friedens Lutheran Church cemeteries, a Joachim Cemetery connected to the old Evangelical church, Johannestal Baptist and Bertsch Baptist Station cemeteries, Rohrbach Reformed Cemetery and the Wolff family cemetery.

Those were the burial plots they knew about. Who knows how many other spots have been forgotten over the years? Recently Edmund Opp, Selma's uncle and the curator of the Eureka Pioneer Museum, took Selma to visit a rural cemetery accessible only by pickup truck. Afterwards, Selma said, she thanked Edmund for what he had done and offered to pay him for it, which he refused. "I've been waiting for somebody to do something like this for a long time," he told her. Selma is hoping many people will find value in the history she's helping to compile. "This is kind of my legacy that I hope to leave before I die," she told me.

Both Selma and Duane said there is much to be done to finish this project. They even talk of publishing a book someday. Selma figures she has at least two more years of work ahead of her. A similar project in nearby Campbell County took 10 years to finish, Duane said.

If you're interested in this project or have information to share, you could write to Selma (Box 67, Eureka S.D. 57437) or e-mail Duane ([email protected]). Also, Selma will speak about the project at the annual meeting of the Eureka Pioneer Museum on June 20.

(Paulette Tobin grew up on a farm near Eureka and graduated from EHS in 1973. Today she lives in Grand Forks, N.D. You can email her at [email protected])